June 2006 Archives

My favorite arcade game growing up was PINBALL!! The good old analog variety at the local bowling alley. My favorite one featured Elton John... the ubercool "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" game. Um, yeah. It was a long time ago. What can I say? ;-)

The first electronic game I played at home was pong. On our gigantic TV. Then we got a really exciting (not) game called Tank. Then there was this clown game I got for my Commodore 64. You had to launch a clown in the air and he would pop balloons on the pointy part of his clown hat... or something like that. Not sure how I could be addicted to this game, but I was.

I did get to play REAL games (like Frogger, Asteroids, Ms Pac Man and Space Invaders) at my friends' house on their cool new "toy" called an Atari. Years later I was addicted to the PC versions of Descent and Solitaire. Odd combination, but it worked for me. These days I enjoy Ricochet (aka Rebound), which is like a futuristic version of pong, really.

My favorite arcade game now is still pinball, although the opportunity to play it is rare. I occasionally play the pc version (I really like the table layout in Win's freebie version), but nothing feels like the good old Bally or Gottlieb originals. :-)

The day I was born: Why by Frankie Avalon

Wasn't Frankie the cutest?!

Hold on! I was born in Deutschland! What was the #1 song there?
(be right back with the answer!)

Okay, so the #1 song in Germany was actually an Italian song - Marina by Rocco Granata.
Scary album cover! Wait! Is that kd lang?! :-o

The day I turned 21: (Just Like) Starting Over by John Lennon

How sad and ironic... John had just been murdered a few weeks before.

• $2000 baroque flute
• $3000 serious road trip to Nashville/Memphis/Chicago/St. Louis/Indianapolis not necessarily in that order
• $1500 week at the beach with my kids (recovering from the serious road trip!)
• $3000 MacBook Pro
• the rest goes on a prepaid gas card

Poor, Poor Pitiful Me ;-)

... to be continued

Okay, so maybe not the best ever BUT it definitely made me want to buy the product. Remember Gap's "Denim Invasion" commercial with Orlando Bloom? Yeah, I went to my local Gap store and asked to buy Orlando Bloom, but they said the ad was actually selling jeans. I call that false advertising! ;-)

We are still enjoying DIVINE weather in Virginia as we make our way into June, but I am bracing myself for the usual summer steam ahead. Just around the corner are weeks of hot and muggy days which tend to suck the energy right of you. Our "tried and true" remedy south of the Mason-Dixon Line is Southern Sweet Iced Tea. Here is how I make a heavenly batch...

• 4 or 5 Luzianne Family Tea Bags (or 8 - 10 regular size)
• 1 cup Dixie Crystals granulated sugar (or less - to taste)
• 3 or 4 trays of ice cubes (about 1 quart)

I fill my favorite tea kettle with fresh, filtered water and set it on high.

As soon as it gets to a good rolling boil, I pour all the water into a gallon pitcher then drop my tea bags into the water. (You can pour the boiling water over the tea bags, but I find they usually burst open when I do that.

Steep tea for exactly 3 - 5 minutes!! My personal preference is to steep 5 minutes for sweet tea, which allows a well-defined flavor to come through the sweetness, but is not overly strong.

After steeping, squeeze then remove the tea bags.

Stir sugar into hot tea.

IMMEDIATELY drop in all the ice!! Yes, right into the HOT tea! The ice "shocks" the tea into perfectly sparkling clarity. The color will be a beautiful reddish amber -- it should stay clear and not get cloudy.

Serve over ice in a tall glass... kick your feet up on the front porch and ENJOY!!

It's heaven in a pitcher, y'all !!

Sometimes I like to throw in a splash of Torani Pomegranate or Raspberry Syrup and a lime wedge for a perfectly refreshing balance of sweet and tart. (If I plan to serve tea with fruit syrups I use less sugar in my recipe.)

Here's a yummy twist for the adventurous... Bourbon Street Iced Tea

Just for fun...

Dixie Crystals Blues (mp3)

More Sweet Tea for your listening pleasure. :-)

molten sulfur? are you thinking what i'm thinking? um... who's driving this rig?

My "About" page from kate.vox.com, a sideblog I integrated into EspressoEpiphany when vox closed.

About Me

I am excessively diverted!

* Member since Jun 8, 2006
* I was a beta tester

LIVE from Northern Virginia... I am a perpetually distracted, disorganized and diverted (ala Jane Austen), homeschooling, blogging, literature-loving, flute-playing, artsy-fartsy, caffeinated geekmum of 3 daughters, two of whom have graduated from our family homeschool and are making their own ways in the world - one as a wife and mom - the other as a college student. Thankfully, I wasn't completely inept as their teacher as they have grown to be verbally coherent, socially responsible, respectful, respectable, non-criminal participants in our community (they can also read, write and do a little 'rithmetic!). My youngest dd is still at home and learning under my tutelage for several more years, so I still have time to really mess her up. ;-) Just kidding. As I said, I'm a VERY BLESSED mum to my own 3 daughters and grandmum to 3 granddaughters, as well. Does it get any better than this?! My girls and I also share a passion for historic preservation, specifically 18th century colonial Virginia history. We are historic interpreters at two historic sites, portraying a local midwife (mois!) and an apothecary's apprentice, as well a young gentry lady. We do first-person interpreting which is akin to acting in an interactive play. We work in character (and attempt to stay that way) as we converse with our 21st century visitors. It is challenging, but fun. The best part is seeing visitors get excited about history when they experience it portrayed this way. :-) You can also find me at geekmum.com, pixeldiner.com and other woefully neglected blogs.